AT 2009
Gail Kogut

Friday 7 April - Davenport Gap/Highway 40. Gail called this morning from Davenport Gap, within view of Highway 40 (she says hi to Sharon, since 40 goes through Flagstaff.)

She has, of course, been having a great time. She is at higher elevations in the Smoky Mountains, with hemlock, balsam fir and night temperatures in the 20s. She says that she hasn't been able to see civilization since she left Fontana Dam. She and a few other hikers saw three black bears coming out of Fontana Dam but with no incident. The three bears went their own way, and the hikers when theirs.

It rained for two solid days, but the sun has been out since and Gail's all dry now. She said that the mud on the trail was four to six inches deep, and by midday she got mud all the way up her legs. It took her ten hours to hike 13 miles in the mud yesterday. (Greg, she amends her statement that the Smoky Mountains are easy to include "unless there's a lot of mud, in which case they are fairly difficult.")

The shelters were full every night. You're required to stay in them unless they are full, and luckily for Gail they were always full - like "sardines". She also said she could hear the snoring through the stone walls and dozens of feet away from the shelter.

She's hiking alone all day except she routinely gets passed in the late morning by the fast hikers who slept in at the shelter she had stayed at the night before. But she says she loves hiking alone. Also she made several friends on this leg.

Davenport Gap is the last shelter in the Smoky Mountains, and then it's all down to Highway 40. She said that as she loses elevation, spring seems to arrive again, and that right now she's in "spring flower city".

Gail's pictures are posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/jarredswalwell/GailAT2009 as I receive them in the mail.

Friday 10 April - Fontana Dam. Today Gail pulled into Blue Ridge, by Fontana Dam, about a half day early again. This morning she hiked through a thunderstorm for two hours, with occasionally only a second lag time between lighting and thunder.

She was planning to stay at the Fontana Shelter (which she says is quaintly called the Fontana Hilton) but it was full up with a group of 30 people that has been just ahead of her for a few days. So she opted for the Fontana Village, where she got to watch the thunderstorm from behind the window of her room and had the dinner special of trout with ramps, which are native onions that grow along the trail.

Her next leg is the Smoky Mountains, which will take her seven days, and she will likely be out of communication for nine days. But, Gail said she send me a photo card today!

Wednesday 8 April - Gail leaves me a voicemail at 5 am my time (8 am her time) to say she had the moon shining in the window all night, which means good weather, and she's completely excited to climb 4000 feet out of Nantahala under blue skies. This is the biggest climb on the trail besides the climb straight up Mt. Katahdin at the end of the trail.

Tuesday 7 April - Nantahala. Gail pulled into Nantahala after trekking through 4 inches of snow. She said she was pretty tired after lifting her feet to hike through the snow. But, she stayed warm and dry, and she did get sun and 70 degree weather on the first few days of this leg. Because the trail is so well marked, she had no problem staying on it even under snow.

Gail stayed two nights in Nantahala to rest up. She has started to meet fellow hikers- in fact she basically hung up on me when she saw a couple of fellow hikers pull in - but she says she's still mostly hiking alone.

Nantahala is also a big river kayaking hot spot, so Gail said there were plenty of kayakers wandering around in their lifejackets and neoprene skirts. She talked about a "huge culture clash" between kayakers and hikers. Obviously she's keeping away from the newspapers if this is now her idea of a huge culture clash. I asked her if kayakers and hikers were in battle with their paddles and poles. She didn't think that was funny.

Gail found that a local brewery makes a good oatmeal porter, but she didn't really find very good food. She is sensitive about talking more about the trail than the food on this trip, since she knows I'm sharing details on this webpage. So for the record, I had to ask her about the food.

She is still having a great time. She was a bit worried about the cold at higher altitude, but she had a forecast of sun and warmth for the next few days. She had a lot of climbing to do on her next leg.

Tuesday 31 March - Hiawassee. Gail is several hours ahead of her schedule and stayed two nights and a rest day ("zero day") in Hiawassee. It's about ten miles from the trail, so she hitched a ride into town. She said that it is a cute town and that her log cabin would fit in well there. On her day off, she shopped for books and looked at the day-old chicks in the feedstore and the "small growing things" at the plant nursery. And presumably ate a lot. And also did laundry.

She says she is "in no way disappointed" with the AT. She calls the AT the "chatty feminine trail" and the PCT the "silent masculine trail". She is avoiding the shelters that most people stay in and opting for secluded sites off the trail. This worked to her advantage especially the night before she made it to Hiawassee; the shelter was on the windy side of a ridge so she hiked around to the backside for a calm, if still wet, evening. She says she spends most of her day hiking alone, passing five or so people a day. She's seen a few wildflowers, but the trees have not yet leafed and generally it reminds her of November. But she expects spring to come fast.

She got a small sunburn hiking into Hiawassee, but it rained Wednesday and presumably rained on her on Thursday. The weather is supposed to be nicer this weekend but colder - maybe with a snowstorm - as she hikes into Nantahala. So, think warm thoughts for her!

If you want a more solid look at the trail, check out http://www.fivemillionsteps.com/trailmap.php. I would link to it from this website for each posting if I could save views of specific spots on the map. It looks like it is one long ridge hike from Hiawassee to Nantahala, and Gail loves ridge walks, so I'm excited for her this weekend.

Sunday 29 March - Walas-Yi Center. Gail called from here to tell me that it had been raining cats and dogs. She found out that most other hikers around her had already bailed to towns to dry out. Gail has a good system for staying dry, although it does require that she put on yesterday's wet hiking clothes each morning. The ground is so saturated that it won't hold the stakes for her hammock fly, so one night her fly flew off. Luckily it was between downpours. The temperature is a bit chilly at higher elevations, 38 on the top of Blood Mountain.

Gail gave me a few minor adjustments to her package requirements (only two Esbit fuel tabs per day instead of 2.5, since she boils water for tea and soup at the same time.) Other than that, her main comment is that she is all smiles all the time.

Friday 27 March - Springer Mountain - the start of the AT. Gail did not call me from here but I am pointing out the official start of the AT at Springer Mountain, 8.8 miles from Amicalola Lodge. Note that the AT is on Google Maps, but it either disappears after 5000 feet or Gail is hiking the roads at times. You can "hop" from picture to picture (if you turn on the option for pictures) until the AT reappears at Justus Mountain, east and a little north of Springer Mountain. Then it disappears again for a little bit and so on.

Thursday 26 March - Amicalola Lodge. Gail got her pre-planned ride from the airport at Atlanta to the lodge. She was planning on hiking up the 604 stairs up to the lodge (not shown on Google Maps but you can see the terrain that would require steps.) She was pleased with her ride; the guy drove a truck, but it wasn't a "redneck truck", and he took her plus pack and packages all the way up to the lodge. Gail had been practicing for those stairs so she got a ride back down to the bottom sans pack and packages and hiked up them. Then she had dinner at the lodge; dinner was according to her "mediocre, and I'm being kind."